I was born right smack in the middle of the baby boom…and so when I first discovered the blogosphere, one of the first blogs that drew me in was one called “Boomer Chick: Musings of an Over the Hill Chick.”

Let’s just say I could relate.

Growing up in both Florida and California in those post-war developments that came about to accommodate the sudden population explosion, I remember thinking that life was just a series of streets with the same kind of cinder-block homes, painted in different colors with perhaps different plantings outside–and scads of kids in every house. I went to an elementary school that was so overcrowded we had to attend in double-session…and there was another elementary school three miles away that was just as crowded!

In my graduating class in California, some 700 kids got diplomas–and I think there were 800 in the class right behind mine, and perhaps 900 in the sophomore class. AND, again, there was another high school within walking distance!

For quite a chunk of my life, I felt as though the entire population was within two years of my age.

And now–well, it seems that most people just aren’t. In fact, my friend Alice (who precedes the baby boom by a few years) said it’s been tiring and annoying to watch how the boomers re-claim and re-create every life stage that she’s just gotten through. She got married…and five years later the boomers had re-done The Wedding. She had her babies–and then the boomers came into parenthood and acted as though they’d pretty much invented the whole concept of reproduction. They redesigned car seats, strollers, came up with Snuglis and backpacks, fixed the wind-up swing so it didn’t wake up sleeping babies, said it was okay for women to work and babies to go to daycare, created new educational toys and TV shows. And on and on.

The way she sees it, the only saving grace is that she won’t be around to see what innovations our generation comes up with for funerals.

Today, though, I’m proud to be a guest blogger on the Boomer Chick web site, which I hope you’ll go over to check out. Not just for my post–there you’ll find a whole assortment of interesting posts by Dorothy Thompson, who describes very poignantly and honestly just what it was like for our generation growing up. We were perhaps the first generation in which having divorced parents was almost the norm. Like me, Dorothy was moved all the way across the country to California when her mother remarried…and like all of us, she’s seeking to recreate and connect with that past. Best of all, she writes about it without a trace of bitterness or resentment.

Just a desire to know who she is and a willingness to share that journey with the rest of us.

3 Responses to “ Baby boomers, unite! ”

Comments:

That’s the woman who claims she had a part in a book I have written. Why do they say these things? Anyway, I have a message for you. I am told I am to partake in a game. I have been tagged. I am told I have to pass the tag to my friends. Henri has not many. So, I pass the tag to you. Read the instructions on my blog. I love this blogging thing. And what is this baby boomer thing? The 21st century confuses dear Henri.

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